Parvati Shallow grew up the eldest of three siblings on a commune in Vero Beach, Florida. She and her family moved to Atlanta when she was 11 years old. Shallow put herself through college, attending the University of Georgia where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism with minors in French and Italian. While in college, she was an active member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority and is a huge Bulldog fan!

A nature lover at heart, Shallow has spent extensive amounts of time camping and hiking through North America's state parks including the Tetons and Yellowstone. While in college, she organized a two-month backpacking trip through Europe where she and two friends visited 13 countries, sleeping in youth hostels, train stations, on beaches and park benches. Shallow's favorites include good sushi, wearing oversized jerseys, karaoke and cheering on "The Dawgs." She is also training for triathlons with her mom, Gale.

Shallow has found her niche with the Los Angeles boxing community and began competing in 2004. She and some fellow boxers have parlayed her passion for the sport into the creation of a non-profit organization titled "Knockouts for Girls," a charity that provides scholarships and boxing lessons for underprivileged girls. The organization recently held their first fundraising event that included boxing matches and a fashion show. Having been a huge success, she will be boxing at a second fundraiser in February, 2008.

Shallow currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Her birth date is September 21, 1982.

Hey everybody, this is Gina from BuddyTV and today, I'm talking to Parvati, the winner of Survivor: Micronesia. How has this week been for you? It must have been very crazy since Sunday night.

It has been crazy. It's been such a whirlwind. It's so much fun.

The look on your face, you looked pretty shocked when you ended up beating Amanda. Were you surprised with the votes?

Yeah. I think I was more surprised that it was over, that it was done, and that I actually won. I just didn't believe it. It was very surreal.

When you went into the final tribal council with Amanda, how confident did you feel that you could beat her?

I kind of felt like it was 50/50. I felt like if I could do a job at convincing the jury to respect my strategy, as far as playing the game and being in a position of power, then I would have a good shot at winning. But then I knew I had some good girlfriends that were there that liked me, and I also had some enemies there that didn't like me. Either way it was gonna work out.

You pulled in a lot of votes from the fans. Why do you think they respected your game over Amanda's?

Well, I set up an alliance with Natalie and Alexis and protected them in the game, and they probably got a lot further in the game because of that alliance. I think they appreciated that, and then I think I got Jason's vote just because I was honest and straightforward. I competed with him in that challenge, and essentially beat him in immunity, and I think he respected that a lot.

How did things change between you and Ozzy from the final tribal council to Sunday night's finale? How did you guys end up fixing your friendship?

I think Ozzy is mature enough to realize that it's a game, and it's not real. When you're out there you have to kill or be killed. Basically it's survival of the fittest. He said himself that you gotta outwit, outplay, and outlast in the same episode that he got voted out. I think he's come to terms with that. It wasn't personal. I do care about him and I think he's a great person.

If he had made it to the final two could anybody have beaten him?

No, there's no way anyone could have beaten him. The fans were drooling over him, and every girl was in awe of him.

Do you think that blindsiding him, getting rid of him, and being instrumental in that, was that your best move of the game?

That was a huge move for me. That's when I kind of outed myself for my strategy, and there was no way I could go back and not be seen as a threat after that, or a strategic player after that. Again I had to just buck up and be really forward about how I play the game after that.

You've said several times that you had the reputation from Cook Islands of being the flirt. Was that part of the reason that you wanted to come back and play a second time, to show that you've got more in your bag of tricks than just the flirt card?

Well I knew coming back that I would have to play a different way, but that wasn't the reason. I didn't want to prove to America that I'm not just a flirt, I wanted to win the game.

Was there anyone who didn't come back that was a favorite that you wished got to play the game a second time?

Maybe Shane.

A lot of people have said Shane this season. What is it about Shane that everyone seems to like?

He's just crazy. He's really entertaining out there, and you're dying for any form of entertainment.

If you were in control and you could have chosen who you sat next to in final three, who would you have taken with you of everyone who played this season?

I would have stuck with Amanda and Cirie. There's nothing I would change about how I played the game.

How does winning the money change your life? What do you plan on doing with it? Are you gonna take some time off, will you go on vacation, you gonna do some charity work? What will you do?

You know, it's so funny, I haven't even had one second to let it sink in that I have a million dollars back in my pocket. It's crazy to even think about. I'm going to help build up our charity, gain some more awareness for it, keep working on it, and doing some PR for it. It's called Knockouts For Girls, and we provide scholarships and boxing training for underprivileged girls. I really want to work with that and gain some more awareness for it, because I think it's a great thing.

Do you get to get out often with other Survivors and meet the fans during the year?

I haven't actually. A lot of people do that, but I've been really, really busy. If I could fit that in I'd do it for charity and stuff, but I'm not just gonna try to sink in to the Survivor community forever. I kind of want to move on. I'm just really glad, honestly, that it's over.

Do you have any regrets about the way you played the game at all?

Not at all. Not at all.

Alright, thanks so much for your time Parvati. Congratulations again.

Thank you.

Logged

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Parvati Shallow played the game once before, but this time she was far more successful since she knocked out 19 other players on Survivor: Micronesia – Fans Vs. Favorites to take the title of sole Survivor and the $1 million prize.

Just moments after the 25-year-old boxer of Los Angeles was told she was the newest millionaire, she spoke about the differences from this game to the last, her relationships and what’s next.

She was very happy to be taking home $1 million. “I’m ecstatic with being able to play the game again and you know, having it turn out how it turned out,” Parvati began. “It was awesome how it worked out.”

She took sixth place the first time she played on Survivor: Cook Islands. What was the difference this time other than the fact that she won? “What wasn’t the difference? Oh my God. It was completely different game, it was different people,” she said. “It was a lot more strategy for me. A lot more thinking on my feet. A lot more making aggressive, offensive moves. Last time I laid back, I had a good time, I flirted a little.”

One of her biggest rivals also made a return from the Cook Islands season to compete as a favorite. “Jonathan Penner is a very strategic guy and I knew he is so good at manipulating people and getting them to believe what he says,” Parvati commented about her competition. “He like puts this mind trick on people. So, I knew that we didn’t have a good bond and I knew we probably wouldn’t be working together. So, he was my biggest competition I think.”Another favorite, James Clement of Survivor: China had a better bond with her than Jonathan. He and Parvati became an island couple as they flirted for most of the game – until she turned on their alliance. “James was pretty mad at me about voting Ozzy out and about breaking our alliance,” Parvati said. “I think he was hurt, you know. I think he felt like what we had was real out there and I think he really kind of liked me.” Was she just flirting with him for strategy? “I love James, I think he’s awesome. We’re not dating or anything, but I think he’s an amazing guy.”

Although it cost her a vote from James, she said that turning on the alliance was the best move she made that helped her get to the end of the game. “I think forming the women’s alliance put me in a position of power in the game (but) I think my biggest move was winning immunity and voting Ozzy out.”Having played with some of these people before and knowing them personally, Parvati said she had to distinguish the game from friendships. Did she feel remorse for voting some of them out? “Outside of the game, yes, because I do care about them,” she said. “However, inside the game, my head was in the game and it was strategy until the end. So I separated emotion and friendship from strategy and game play.”

This 16th season of the reality giant brought in 10 ultimate fans to compete against 10 of the most recent favorites. Each group was given their own camp, and Parvati said the fans’ location was no paradise since she had to spend some time there after a tribal switch. “The fans camp was miserable,” she said. “There was no sand, there was no food, there was no cave. So that’s pretty much everything you need when you’re out in the wilderness and we didn’t have any of that. It rained every day. We couldn’t make a fire. It was awful.”

But miserable or not, she still outlasted all the others throughout the full 39 days to take the prize. The final votes were actually cast on location sometime in December, leaving plenty of time for her to ponder if she had won or not, which she said she didn’t do. “I honestly have been keeping myself so busy that I haven’t really given a lot of thought to the ending,” she said. “Until recently, until like last week. I saw Amanda a few times before and we’re both like totally hyperventilating. But I tried not to spin my wheels too much and get preoccupied with the outcome because I knew it was out of my hands. I couldn’t do anything about it so what’s the point worrying about it?”

Having played the game twice and now conquering it, Parvati knows exactly what she wants to do – continue working on the charity she helped create to provide scholarships to underprivileged girls. “I’ve been working with the boxing charity a lot that my friends and I started up,” she said. “It’s called ‘Knockouts for Girls.’ We shot a swimsuit calendar. We’re going to have a big party to release it in Los Angeles in June. So just kind of getting the ball rolling with the charity, building it up and raising some more money to help these girls.”

She also said she would never take on the challenge of Survivor again. “I would never play this game again. I played it as hard as I could, I did as best as I could. And I couldn’t top this. I just couldn’t.”

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan